Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

This isn't really religion or politics, but...

Hero is a new novel raising much controversy. It is just a normal young adult book about Superhero's. The thing is, the main character, who is a superhero, is gay. I find this to be a great idea because it might make kids today less homophobic. But so many parents have gotten stirred up, saying it shouldn't be in the school library. Apparently, it's not "appropriate" for their kids. So wait, now gay people aren't appropriate? I find that a horrible thought and I am just now realizing how homophobic this nation is.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Oops, I made this twice, please delete this one.

Yep.
Ban it and burn it.
Gays are disgusting and this planet needs to be cleansed of them.

Er, wait. Sorry about that. I was being controlled by Fred Phelps for a second there. I was about to go protest at a soldier's funeral.


Honestly, I don't see why parents would get their panties in a wad over this.
So what, he's gay. Big deal.

Are they afraid he's going to make their kids gay? If that was the case, kids that read books about astronauts will be astronauts.

Note to self: go back in time and read a book about Warren Buffett.

In short, parents should worry about the issues that actually threaten their kids, like a crappy education system, broken social security, the boogieman, drugs, and terrorism.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

I don't see how mentioning gay romance is bad for kids. It's no more disgusting than straight romance. But I'm asexual, so what do I know?

And I always thought there were quite a few young adult novels that deal with homosexuality. What difference is another one going to make?

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"Explain to me how drowning them would not ruin their date."

This is where I would make some sort of joke about Magna, but I won't. Of course, now that I said that, I have, but it's only a meta-joke. Those are harmless.

Uh, but yeah. GAY PRIDE!

I sincerely hope that one day homophobia will be eradicated for good.

Of course that will never happen.

But screw that, I can hope.

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So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain. Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

Magna? You mean like the car?

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"Explain to me how drowning them would not ruin their date."

No, Magna Carta the user.

I could see this novel causing more gay kids to come out, but there lots worse problems in society than homosexuality.

Game?

Re-read the first post.

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So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain. Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?

Fixed. I must have lost The Game or something when I was typing that.

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Just like how there are lots of books that deal with witchcraft and magic other than Harry Potter, but HP is the series that got flamed and "banned"--it's all because of publicity.

I wonder if this will be follow-up reading material for the children's book "King and King" (about a gay prince who finds a partner).

Seriously, though, people focus way too much on all the wrong aspects of literature like this...just as they did with Harry Potter. So what if it mentions witchcraft--does that negate the messages of tolerance and other messages generally seen as positive in the storyline?

Banning books is total BS. What happened to Freedom of the Press? Sorry if you're too close-minded to think your children should be reading something about a group of people you think it's okay to discriminate against. If that's really how you want to raise your kids, then make sure they don't read it. In essense, raise YOUR kids--not everyone else's. Just because YOU don't like something doesn't mean that no one else should have a right to access it. Thinking anything to the contrary just shows how arrogant and stupid you really are. Go kill yourself.

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The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

I know! Just the other day I walked into school with a copy of the Goetia, a Baphomet pendant necklace, a Cthulhu Pendant necklace, a Slayer Shirt, and a copy of the Satanic Bible/Satanic Rituals, and you know what I got?

"Hey buddy, nice shoes".

Seriously.

Oh, and Gays in books are okay as long as they don't go into detail about sexual encounters or crap, unless its one of them Saucy Gay Romance Novels with Fabio holding Fabio-With-a-Mustache in a bed on the cover.

You know, the kind Zeno reads?

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Zeno once read a series of books about a gay guy, it was called The Last Herald-Mage, by Mercedes Lackey. It sucked, because despite the fact that the main character had phenomenal cosmic powers, basically all it talked about the whole series was the fact that he was gay, and dealing with his family about it, and his relationships.

My point is, I don't care if a book is about a homosexual, but if that's seriously all it talks about, then it probably sucks.

As StrongRad points out, people are still hung up on the idea that sexuality is a choice. However, the evidence continues to stack up against this idea. The assumption is that by merely portraying a gay character, young impressionable readers will be influenced to "turn" gay. This increasingly absurd notion fuels a great deal of modern homophobia; you can legitimize your hatreds if you convince yourself you're doing it to protect children. It's a handy smokescreen to cover an individual's own ignorance, insecurity, and immaturity. (Case in point: a few decades back the anti-civil rights crowd used to argue passionately that integrating the schools would put white children at a terrible risk.)

One of the problems with LGBT issues is that they inherently involve sex, and if there's one topic guaranteed to make people squirm, it's anything sexual. If you then subvert "normal" sexuality people have an even harder time dealing with it.

Mike

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Logical fallacies ahoy! I'd also like to say: graaaaagh!

Yeah, seriously, a freaking book isn't going to turn kids gay. Sure, it may make them more sexually aware, but not gay. Come on.

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This is exactly what I was trying to teach other kids yesterday, gay people aren't bad. Years ago, we might be asking "What's wrong with black people?".

EDIT by furrykef: Watch your language there, buddy...

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Stave it off...1,2,3...

You can validate any claim by saying "Think of the Children!" or "Gun control Laws" or "In a post 9/11 world", according to the media.


Just because I wanted to point it out.

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Once people learn that homosexuality is not a choice and can't be "cured" this won't be an issue any longer. I have no problem with this. I think it's good thing to learn about acceptance and tolerance.

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If you're so scared that a book will turn your child gay, and they do, support the kid instead of going around trying to ban whatever it was that made the child brave enough to come out of the closet.

And even if people realize that this isn't something curable, there will still be Bible fanatics that will say that homosexuality is wrong and then condemn the LGBTs as being sinful. It's not their fault they're that way, and they're not even trying to hurt anybody with their orientation.

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You make it sound like it is a problem, just not a major one.

Yes, you're right about one thing. There will always be some, like myself, who proclaim homosexual behavior sinful because the Bible does so. But until someone gives me good reason to trust the winds of modern thinking on this subject above the message given by God's own servants, I fail to see why we shouldn't.

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Isn't that only in the Old Testament, though? And doesn't Jesus say in the New Testament that there's no need to follow the old one anymore? I don't know, I'm not a Christain or anything.

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"Explain to me how drowning them would not ruin their date."

No, no, I think what Jesus did was more build off of the OT, and think of it more as parable stories than literal word laws. Of course, this is just my two-year Catholic-school induced Theology class speaking, I'm not sure if this is credible at all.


As for the book...

The superhero is gay.



So what?

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If they have a problem with it... don't read it and don't let their children read it.

Simple. I don't get why people have to ban something some people like because they have an objection to it. I wouldn't read it and I think gay romance is immoral, but I don't force my opinions on others.


To the average Christian it is one. I think it is, but I think it could be more readily fixed by people willingly accepting the word of God than laws banning it or books pertaining to it. Just my humble opinion though.

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I hadn't started reading the book when I originally posted this. Now I have. Parents might be complaining because it is fairly inappropriate. I mean, there's a gay internet porn scene, with some very descriptive adjectives. But still, I've seen similar stuff in other books for the same age level, and no one's gotten mad cause they're straight.

Jesus, in the New Testament, declares that God created man and woman for the purpose of joining them together as one flesh. Furthermore, throughout the New Testament, there are plenty of exhortations for Christians to abstain from homosexual behavior. So no, it's not just the Old Testament.

As for the Hero, well, I think Simon Zeno summed up my thoughts best: if this is just a story whose antagonist just happens to be gay, then big deal. It shouldn't be an issue in that case. But then again, why would it matter enough to make a point of? On the other hand, if the point of the book is to forgo good storytelling in favor of addressing GLBT issues, then I'm not sure it'd provide much entertainment value to its audience.

And Greg, perhaps they should become interested in those other books. If book companies are basically pushing pron to underage audiences, then people should speak out, regardless of whether it is straight or gay pron.

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I don't see a problem if this book is aimed at older teens. Let's not go about pretending that teenagers are unaware of sex or pornography. Regardless of whether they're old enough they're going to see it. For LGBT teens these days finding queer* content, including porn, on the internet is part of growing up and coming to grips with their orientations. The material they're drawn to might be particularly shocking to Grandma, yes, but the notion that it is somehow "worse" than straight pornography is laughable (especially given the proliferation of faux-lesbian content in mainstream material).



Addressing LGBT** issues is an essential function of this sort of media, however. Frequently, LGBT teens are particularly isolated and alienated from their peers; they don't know why they're different and they don't understand why their orientations are so widely loathed. A lot of these kids have no role models and no support structures. The majority are closeted because they're terrified of how their peers would react to the truth. They hear about Matthew Shepard and similar cases. They know there's some bully in their school who'd be all too happy to beat them up or slash their tires if their secret was out. Then, to cap it off, they have to listen to people telling them that at the end of this trying existence they're going to wind up in Hell. (That comment is not aimed at you, Didymus.) Is it any wonder that the suicide rate for LGBT teens is four times the national average for their age group?

Given that, media that says to these kids you are not alone, there are people out there who understand what you're going through is vitally important, even if some storytelling value is compromised in the process.

Mike

* If anyone's wondering I'm using "queer" not as a slur but as the LGBT community uses it; as a reclaimed word and a catch-all term.

** Or GLBT, the terms are interchangeable. I usually use "LGBT" because I find it easier to say.

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Logical fallacies ahoy! I'd also like to say: graaaaagh!

The most recent posts were evolving into a discussion of pornography in general, so I split it here.

- Kef

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Is there anything more to the book than just sex? I think it's okay to have explicit scenes in books, personally--but not if it takes up the whole frickin' story. My favorite book (Looking For Alaska by John Green) has some fairly explicit scenes in it, but that's not what makes it a good book. It's just a brilliant book, regardless of the sexual content.

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Wait wait wait, how did this topic about homosexual superheroes stay under my radar?

Anyways, I really have no stance on this. If people don't want to read the book, they won't.

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Like I said, the majority of the book is just about catching bad guys with his superhero team.

Can I just sat that there is a difference between making people come out and making them gay? I agree with the statement Ian's making, though. Has it never occured to conservatives that since the latest research shows that homosexuality is genetic? ergo, gay people get married, therefore DON'T have kids, therefore DON'T pass on the genes responsible for homosexuality. the social stigma surrounding homosexuality seems to have, very ironically, perpetuated it! we made gay people get married and have kids, thus sustaining the genes!

But of course conservatives wouldn't aknowldge that, since gayness is a choice in their world. and it is. THEIR choice. allow gay marriage, gays dissappear. don't, they stay for the forseeable future.

That's my two cents worth.

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"Nothing lasts forever in this wicked world, not even our sorrows" -Charlie Chaplin

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